Dead Letter Drop
by Evil Nerd Queen
Summary: Henry comes up with the ultimate plan to get his moms together; he creates a dead letter drop with both of them and tricks them into talking to each other without either of them knowing. Will it work or will it end in disaster? Swan Queen
1. Chapter 1

**You know how you sometimes get plot bunnies and you have to write it down it will just keep bugging you? This was a freaking plot elephant! If I didn't write this down, I might have exploded. I actually used to have one of these with my cousin when we were little and it was a lot of fun so now Henry's setting one up. I'm excited for this so please review and if I get a good response, I'll continue. :)**

* * *

"Hey, Emma!" Henry called out as he spied his birthmother sitting on a bench a little ways away from the school doors.

"Hey, kid. How was school?"

"Awesome!" Henry said. "Look what I got." He reached into his backpack and pulled out a book on spies.

"Do the fairy tales know you're cheating on them?" Emma asked with a grin. Henry shot her a glare that would have made Regina proud and Emma quickly said, "So what? Now everyone in town is a superspy?"

"No, I just got it so that Mom would stop bugging me, but it's actually really cool and I think it might help with Operation Cobra."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah!" He sat down on the bench next to her and flipped the book open. "Check this out. Spies have these cool things called dead letter drops that let them pass information without actually meeting. Maybe we can use that so that Mom doesn't catch us together anymore."

"That's…actually not a bad idea," Emma admitted. "Do you want to try making one?"

Henry nodded vigorously and jumped up with the spy book under his arm. "Where can we do it?"

"Henry?" The mayor's voice floated across the school grounds and her high heels clicked on the sidewalk as she made her way over to the pair.

"Hi, Mom," Henry said quietly.

"Madam Mayor," Emma greeted.

"Sheriff Swan," Regina replied curtly. Then she turned to Henry. "How was school?"

"Good," Henry said. Then he held up his new book. "Look what I got."

"Interesting," Regina said as she flipped through the book. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. Bye, Emma!"

"See you later, kid," Emma replied. Regina shot the sheriff a glare and then turned around with an arm on Henry's shoulder. Emma stood up and stretched lazily. Then she saw Mary Margaret walking out of the school.

"Hey!" Emma called.

"Oh, Emma," Mary Margaret said. "Hi. What are you doing here?"

"Well I was talking to Henry and then Madam Mayor decided to take him home."

The schoolteacher smiled sympathetically and shifted her books to her other arm. "So your day was pretty good then?" Mary Margaret asked knowing that Emma never came to the school unless she didn't have any paperwork to do.

"Yup. No paperwork and Henry showed me his new spy book and I think we're going to be starting a dead letter drop for Operation Cobra."

"Interesting."

"I'm pretty impressed I got that all out with a straight face," Emma said. "Hey, you want a ride home?"

"No, that's okay," Mary Margaret replied. "Are we sill doing dinner at Granny's?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. I'll see you later!" Emma called as she walked off towards her bug.

* * *

It was four thirty when Emma heard the walkie talkie on the desk next to her buzz.

"Emma?" Henry's voice came through the static. "Can you meet me in the park in ten minutes?"

Emma grinned as she picked the walkie talkie up and spoke into it. "Sure, kid. What's going on?"

"It's about Operation Cobra and that thing we talked about earlier."

"I'm on my way." Emma grabbed her jacket and keys and started outside.

She pulled up to the park at exactly four forty. Henry's bike was leaning against a tree and the boy himself was standing next to the gazebo with an envelope in his hand. He waved her over and started talking as soon as she was in earshot.

"You see this stone here?" Henry asked kicking at the aforementioned stone. Emma nodded. It was about the size of a brick. It had come loose over the years and now it could easily be removed from its place. "This is the drop spot. All you have to do is pick up the stone, put the letter in and then turn the stone around so the flat side is out. Easy, right?"

"Yeah," Emma said. "Wait a sec. Does your mom know you're here?"

"I told her I was going to the park because I thought I left my pencil here."

"She let you bike down to the park just so that you could look for a pencil?" Emma asked incredulously.

"Yup," Henry replied. He held up a dirty, broken pencil and then grinned. "I'll show you the drop thing." He pulled out the stone, placed his envelope inside, turned the stone so the flat side was facing out and then pushed it back into place. "See? And then when you take it out, you turn the stone back around."

"I got it, kid," Emma said. This seemed like an awful lot of work when they still had the walkie talkies. "Any other rules I should know about?"

"Just a few. Make sure you type the letters so that if anyone else finds them, they won't be able to tell it's you and you also need to use code words and code names and stuff like that so no one can understand it if they intercept it."

"Henry, you know this seems like a lot of fun, but why can't we just stick with the radios for now?" Emma asked. It came out as almost whining.

"Because this is what real spies do and this way Mom won't ever find out that we're talking about Operation Cobra."

Emma made the mistake of looking into Henry's puppy-dog eyes and she sighed. "Alright, we can use the dead letter drop," she conceded.

Henry's smile was dazzling.

"On one condition," Emma said. The boy's smile faded a little as he waited for his birthmother's ultimatum. "You don't come sneaking around here at all hours of the day or night to see if I've left a note. You have to promise me that you'll be responsible. If I hear that you're running off or lying so that you can get out of the house, it's over. Got it?"

"Okay," Henry said. "I can do that."

"Good." Emma glanced at her watch. "Now I've got to get to the diner to meet Mary Margaret for dinner. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah!" Henry called as he raced over to his bike. "Bye!"

Emma waved and then headed off to the diner. Her inner child kept telling her that this would be a lot of fun. There was a part of her that thought that maybe this was some sort of plan, but the child eventually won out.

* * *

"Hey, Mom!" Henry called. "I'm home!"

Regina walked out of the kitchen and met her son in the foyer. "Did you find your pencil?"

Henry nodded and held up the pencil.

"Good," Regina said. She started back into the kitchen and Henry followed her. "You were gone for a while. Did you do anything else while you were there?"

Henry hesitated. "Well, kind of. You remember that old stone in the gazebo that you always used to trip over when we went to the park?"

Regina nodded and she could feel a faint blush creeping over her cheeks at the memory.

Henry didn't seem to notice and he continued speaking. "I had an idea from my spy book. It's this thing called a dead letter drop where two spies can leave notes for each other and stuff."

"What do you mean?" Regina asked.

"I mean it could be like when I was little and you used to leave little sticky notes around the house for me."

Regina paused as she stirred the spaghetti sauce on the stove. "You want to…to do something like that?"

"Yeah," Henry said. "We could just do it for fun and all you have to do is put the note in the hole behind that stone and then turn it so that the flat side is facing out."

"Oh really?" Regina asked. "Is that all I have to do?"

"Well, you should type the notes and use code speak so that if anyone intercepts it, they won't get it."

"And what types of things should I write about?" Regina decided to play along. This was only a tiny bit better than the fairy tales, but it was a step in the right direction.

"Anything really," Henry said. "Just make sure that it's secret so that only I could understand it."

"Alright," Regina sighed when she saw the boy's puppy dog eyes. "We can make a dead letter drop."

"Awesome!" Henry exclaimed. "I'm gonna go work on my homework."

"Dinner will be ready in ten minutes!" Regina called after him, but he was already upstairs. She shook her head and turned her attention back to the sauce in front of her. That boy was up to something, but this did sound kind of fun. And right now she was willing to do anything to get her son back.

* * *

When Henry closed his bedroom door, he sat down at his desk and pulled out his notebook. But he wasn't doing his homework. He started writing a letter. He finished up just as Regina started calling him for dinner.

Later on that night after Regina got in the shower Henry snuck downstairs to her office and typed his letter. He printed it out, folded it, stuck it in an envelope and placed it in his backpack.

The next morning was warm, sunny and beautiful, so Regina let him walk to school. He stopped by the park on his way and stuck the letter into the drop spot.

Now all he could do was wait and hope his plan worked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow. 50 followers? You guys are awesome! Just so you know, I came up with the code names randomly, so if you have any better ideas, pretty please let me know in the comments. Also, I'm putting a lot of my own headcanons in this. Got any others that you want to see? Leave it in a review! I love to hear from you all. Enjoy! :)**

* * *

Emma was on her lunch break. It was a gorgeous day and she decided to go by the park. She didn't have any notes to leave for Henry, but maybe ha had left her something. Sure enough when she got to the gazebo, the stone was turned. She pulled it out and grabbed the envelope inside.

She was about to open it when she remembered Henry's spiel about how this had to be secret. What kind of mother would she be if he found out that she was reading the letters in public?

Emma sighed and tucked the envelope into her jacket pocket. She had to be getting back to the station anyway. She could read it when she got there.

* * *

As luck would have it, Emma had no time at all to read the letter until late that night in her bedroom. Ruby's car had run off the road into a ditch, someone had broken into Mr. Gold's shop again and then Leroy got drunk and started causing trouble. The second she walked in the door, Mary Margaret had dinner ready.

Now it was close to eight o'clock and she was sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed with the envelope in her hands. She carefully slit it open and pulled out the paper inside. She smoothed it on the bed before she started to read.

_To whichever one of you finds this first,_

_O.K. Don't be mad, but I lied to both of you. Kind of. This dead letter drop is meant to get you two to talk to each other in a new way. Who are you talking to? Well I'm not going to tell you. It could be someone you know or someone you don't know. It might be someone you like or someone you hate. Maybe it's a man, maybe it's a woman. Please keep writing to each other. You have to make sure you type the letters and make sure that the other person can't tell who you are because that'll take the fun out of this. Just please keep talking to each other. Trust me here. It's like pen pals only you have no idea who it is you're writing to. It could be anyone in town! Well, except for me. _

_Now go write your first letter to your mystery correspondent. Have fun!_

_-Your friend _

Emma couldn't believe what she had just read. Henry had set her up? There was no way she was letting this slide. Then again, he had gone to all this trouble to type the letter and set up the drop. Plus there was her inner child that was squealing with delight at the prospect of such a mystery.

She sighed and walked over to her desk where she turned on her laptop. There was no guarantee that this mystery correspondent would write back and at least this way she could tell Henry that it wasn't her fault. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment before she started typing.

* * *

Regina had walked by the park twice the day after Henry had suggested the dead letter drop, but both times she had found the stone in its normal position. The next day, she walked to the office and glanced at the stone. She was surprised to find the stone flipped.

She glanced around to check that no one was watching before crouching down next to the gazebo and pulling out the stone. There was an envelope sitting in the hole. She carefully pulled it out and tucked it into her coat pocket to read later on. Right now, she had to get to the office for a meeting.

* * *

Regina was hard pressed to sit through the meeting. It was the same thing as always. Well, except for the fact that Sheriff Swan was ten minutes late although that was becoming commonplace.

Regina tried to remain focused, but her mind kept wandering back to that envelope. It was probably just a simple note, but she wanted to see what it said so badly. By the time the meeting was finally over, her mind had concocted a million different things that could be contained in that letter.

But not one of her ideas came close to the reality.

She slit open the envelope with her silver letter opener and laid the paper out on her desk.

_It appears we've been lied to. My friend set this dead letter drop up with me and I got a letter from him saying that it was a plot to start the two of us communicating. I'm not really sure who you are and I'll bet you're just as confused, so here are seven random facts about me:_

_1. I'm scared of dogs. I got bitten by one when I was little and I've been terrified of them ever since._

_2. I'm a huge fan of Queen. I like lots of old bands, but Queen will always be the best._

_3. My favorite color is red_

_4. I love all things Marvel, especially the Avengers_

_5. My favorite food is tacos._

_6. I did the cinnamon challenge once and failed epically. I love cinnamon, but that was insane._

_7. I was told not to tell you who I am, so you can call me…Disney._

_Okay, I kind of just came up with that name off the top of my head. You don't have to write back if you don't want to. I just wrote this so my friend wouldn't freak out at me. If you do decide to write back, you know where to leave it. _

_-Disney_

Regina reread the letter so she could be sure of what she had seen. Henry had tricked her? Why? Who the hell was this 'Disney' character anyway? But there was one question that seemed to take precedence over all else. Should she write back?

She shook her head. There was no way she was writing back to some stranger. Then again, this was Storybrooke. What was the worst thing that could happen? Nevertheless, Regina squashed the urge to type a response. She crumpled the paper and tossed it into the wastebasket. She would have to have a serious talk with Henry later on.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Regina tried to stay focused on her paperwork, but that letter kept rearing its way into her thoughts. There was something almost enticing about the idea of writing to a stranger. Neither of them would know who they were talking to, so maybe it would be fun.

No. It was ridiculous to even think about. 'Disney' had told her that she didn't have to write back anyway. Talking to a stranger who could possibly spill her secrets to all of Storybrooke would be stupid.

But after twenty-eight years of monotony, things were getting almost fun in this town. Maybe a secret correspondent would liven things up even more. Yes. She would write back.

No, she wouldn't.

Yes she would.

No.

Yes.

Regina went back and forth in her mind before she looked down and realized that she had scrawled 'Yes' across the budget report she was supposed to be reviewing. She sighed and rubbed her temples. If that wasn't a sign, she didn't know what one was.

"Fine," she muttered to herself. "Fine. I'll write back." She turned to her computer and started typing.

* * *

Emma found a new letter in the park that evening when she was walking home. It was dusk and there was no one around, so she sat down on a bench and tore it open eager to see what her new pen pal had written.

_Disney,_

_I suppose we have been lied to. Obviously there's some reason for our friend to want us to communicate, so I suppose I'm willing to try it. In response to your list:_

_1. I'm not afraid of anything except perhaps spiders. I found one on my pillow when I was very young. It was rather scary._

_2. I have never heard of Queen. I prefer Broadway tunes and classical/instrumental music._

_3. My favorite color is gray._

_4. I prefer DC over Marvel_

_5. My favorite food is lasagna_

_6. I have never done the cinnamon challenge. I don't like cinnamon._

_7. Call me Glory._

Emma smiled and the little child in her almost had a heart attack. This was going to be fun.


End file.
